Vigor of Twelve is a play off of the fact that Jesus had twelve disciples. It is a name that helps stress an importance on discipleship. This blog is specifically geared for younger people and mature Christians who don't mind a fresh, bold, and blunt approach to faith. Comments welcome, let's begin the discussion!

Pages

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Acts 5:17-18

Spiritual
leadership (for better or worse) will rise up and assert itself. The Jewish leaders – driven by jealousy –
rise up and arrest the disciples and throw them in prison. Even worse, we are told that the imprisonment
was not some private “hush-hush” prison but rather this was a public
imprisonment.

Thoughts for Today:

First Thought:

I
truly meant what I said in the opening words of my summary retelling. Leadership will assert itself. Sometimes it comes quickly. Other times it needs time to develop. But eventually leadership will assert itself,
for that is the definition of leadership.
However, not all leadership is good.
Here we see the Jewish spiritual leaders rising up and acting out of
jealousy. They act not because God is
leading them to stop false teaching; they act because the disciples are
stealing their show.

How
often does a human emotion like jealousy get in the way of what God is trying
to do here on earth?

Second Thought:

The
apostles are thrown into prison. There’s
no other way to paint this truth. They
are imprisoned. They are thrown into
prison because of their faith. They
“have a record” now because they were called to proclaim Jesus Christ.

So
what are you willing to do for Christ?
Are there things God might ask you to do that legitimately proclaim Him
to the world that you would be unwilling to do?

Third Thought:

The
imprisonment is specifically called out as public in the Bible (and even in the
original Greek). This is clearly a
“smear tactic” on behalf of the Jewish leaders.
They understand the popularity that the apostles have been generating
and they want to do something to stop it.
Nothing causes good people to look negatively upon someone else than
smearing their reputation by throwing them in jail. After all, who wants to be
associated with lawbreaker, right? (For
the record, they accused Jesus of being a lawbreaker, too. I do mind being associated with Him.)

How
often do other people try to knock down our public testimony by talking poorly
about us or by putting us in a potentially compromising situation? Are you willing – like the apostles – to do
it for the sake of Christ?